


Baby Blues

by KUG



Category: Wild Kratts
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Babies, Family Shenanigans, Fluff and Humor, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 14:17:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16348310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KUG/pseuds/KUG
Summary: It was supposed to be a normal day in the Australian outback just hanging out with the kangaroos, but in the span of five minutes Chris somehow finds himself screaming hysterically at a terrified villain and wielding his newly baby-ified and shrieking brother like a protest sign.Things can only go up from here, right?





	Baby Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I am going with a classic and very old-school fanfic trope of de-aging a character. There will be hilarity, confusion, and oh-so-much mushy baby cuteness. Chris will like to think that he's not showing how completely enamored he is by his newly baby brother, but he will fool absolutely no one but himself. Jimmy, Koki, and Aviva will make no such attempt to pretend they're not head over heels for baby Martin.
> 
> This is going to be fun.

Chris wasn’t quite panicking anymore, which was good, but anxiety was still gnawing at him from all directions. His powerful leg muscles bunched again and propelled him forward in another long kangaroo hop, but it was slow. As he landed, as gently as possible, he checked the pouch he’d reactivated on his suit earlier. Baby blue eyes peeked up at him, but his passenger didn’t seem any worse for the wear, the same as the last twenty minutes. Chris let out a relieved breath and gathered himself for another hop.

“Chris!”

The call startled him and he stumbled as he landed, his ears springing to attention as he frantically checked his pouch again. Still no change. _Phew_. He looked up and realized that he had finally rounded the rocky outcropping that the Tortuga was parked behind. Aviva was standing in the open garage door, and she waved as he finally caught sight of her.

“What took you so long?” she called, “We’ve been worried.”

“Sorry,” he called back, taking another careful hop forward. Check the pouch, look up again. “Our Creature Pods fell down a gully.” Hop, check the pouch, look up.

Aviva frowned at his slow process. “Chris is something wrong? Why are you hopping so slow?” Her eyes widened. “Are you hurt? Where’s Martin?”

Chris’s anxiety spiked and he licked his dry lips nervously. Hop, check the pouch, look up. “Um. It’s a long story,” he said finally. Hop, check the pouch, look up. “Just wait till I get there.”

Frowning, Aviva opened her mouth, then closed it again and watched in confused silence as Chris continued his careful hops. She heard footsteps behind her and then Koki’s voice.

“Chris, what in the Creature World are you doing?”

“Uhm… I said I’ll explain when I get there.” Hop, check the pouch, look up.

Koki rolled her eyes. “You could be here in the next three seconds if you wanted, what’s the problem?”

He didn’t reply, just took another slow hop. And another. Two more and he finally reached the bottom of the garage ramp and stopped, looking up at the girls cautiously as his ears flattened. They exchanged a look at the expression on his face.

“Okay spill the beans,” Koki commanded, “What’s going on here? Where’s Martin?”

“Don’t freak out,” he said, which of course instinctively made the girls prepare to freak out. He reached into his pouch and delicately lifted out a wrapped blue bundle, handling it like he was holding the world’s most fragile glass sculpture.

Simultaneously Aviva and Koki’s mouths dropped open.

A blond-haired, blue-eyed baby blinked at them and burbled excitedly, waving a small fist in the air. A soft, confused expletive escaped from Koki’s open mouth. Gaping, Aviva looked from Chris to the baby several times, finally managing to lift a hand and point, questioning.

“It’s not my fault!” Chris suddenly wailed, all the stress pouring out in his warbling, plaintive tone. “I don’t know what happened and now I don’t know what to do and, and—”

Sensing his distress, the baby tilted his head around to look at him, then scrunched up his face and burst into tears. Chris froze and looked terrified.

Aviva shook herself out of her shock and ran down the ramp to gently pluck the squalling infant from Chris’s cautious death grip. “There, there, it’s okay,” she soothed, cradling the baby against her shoulder and bouncing him as she crooned. She paused, leveled a deathly no-nonsense glare at Chris, and said, “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, buster.”

He nodded and deactivated, then stood wilting in front of her; Aviva had never seen him look so completely bewildered and frightened before. A few things had fallen when he deactivated, which she assumed came from his pouch, but he just silently gathered them up as Aviva led the way inside the Tortuga and everyone gathered in the main room. Jimmy’s jaw dropped open at the sight of the baby but Koki held up a hand to forestall any questions.

“Chris is about to explain, right?”

Nodding timidly again, he stood fidgeting next to Aviva while she tried to hush the baby. “Um, here, let me take him,” he said after a minute, when the baby still didn’t quiet. She shrugged and passed him over, since she wasn’t really succeeding in getting him to quiet down. Surprisingly, as soon as Chris had nestled the blond bundle in the crook of one arm, the sobbing trailed off and stopped. Chris managed a weak grin at that.

“Um, so to start with, everything was just fine,” he began, “I mean, we both dropped our Creature Pods into a gully, but we weren’t worried about it yet….”

 

* * *

 

For both of the Kratts to fumble and drop their Creature Pods into a dry old gully was odd in that they’d done it at practically the same time, but in all honesty, they were used to dropping and losing the devices on a regular basis.

Martin looked over at Chris and shrugged. “It looks too steep to really get down there in these big ol’ ‘roo feet,” he said, “we can just deactivate and get them later.”

Chris raised an eyebrow at his brother. “Later?”

He grinned unabashedly. “Yeah, after I’m done playing with these other joeys!” And with that he bounced off to join Hopster and the other young kangaroos.

Rolling his eyes, Chris glanced down the gully at the Creature Pods. It looked like they’d landed in some soft red sand, and certainly nothing would disturb them any time soon. Martin was right, they could stand to wait a bit before deactivating and fetching the equipment. He turned and hopped lazily back towards the grove of trees where part of the mob was resting in the shade.

This time around in their kangaroo adventures, Chris had activated as a smaller male ‘roo, not wanting to attract the attention of the mob boss; he wasn’t keen on collecting any more bruised ribs, thank you very much. Martin was happy to be a joey again, playing with and observing the other young kangaroos while Chris acted as a subordinate male and stood lookout.

Things had been going well up until Martin thought he saw an eagle and darted over to Chris, yelling. Freaked out, Chris came bounding over and miscalculated his speed, and the two of them crashed into each other. Somehow in that mess the Creature Pods had gone flying into the gully.

Well, they’d go get them later, Chris thought. For now, he figured it was a good idea to reactivate his Creature Power Suit with a pouch like last time. It didn’t hurt to be prepared in case of another dingo or wedge-tailed eagle attack. He flopped down next to a bunch of female kangaroos in the shade, stretching out his legs and relaxing, but before he got really settled he touched one finger to a female’s pouch and pressed the reactivation button on his suit. “Reactivate!” There, now he was prepared. Satisfied, Chris stretched his legs again and rolled to his side.

He yawned and lazily looked over the scattered mob of ‘roos. Most of them were grazing, with some of the younger males keeping a lookout as usual. The joeys were hopping around near their mothers, play-boxing and chasing each other in circles, and Martin’s blue pelt stood out among the more dusty grays of the young ‘roos. Chris also took tabs on Roo Boss, currently on the other side of the mob from himself. Chris sat back contentedly, eyes drifting up to the sky to admire the bright blue horizon.

Suddenly he sat up, ears pricked and eyes narrowing at a small speck he could see approaching from the south. A groan rumbled in his throat as he recognized it.

Springing up, Chris stood at attention and thumped one of his hind feet on the ground, stomping out a warning. The dozing females under the tree all jerked awake, and the other males took up Chris’s warning and passed it around until the entire mob was tensed and alert. The joeys all found their mothers and kept close or hopped into the pouch while Martin rapidly scuttled over to hide in Chris’s shadow. He wasted no time in jumping into his younger brother’s pouch, flipping over so that he was right side up again.

“What’s going on bro?” he asked, craning his head back to look up at Chris.

The brunette put his hands on his hips. “You didn’t have to hop in,” he snorted. “But I saw Zach’s jet heading this way from the south. We need to go get our Creature Pods to alert the crew and track him.”

“Oh, gotcha.” Martin wiggled back out of the pouch and scanned the skies, quickly spotting the jet. “He’s almost here,” he grumbled, “let’s hope he just passes over.”

But no, of course not; the jet started to set down a little distance away from the wary mob. Chris and Martin exchanged glances and sighed.

“You go get the Creature Pods, I’ll go see what he’s up to,” Chris said, starting to hop away.

Martin frowned but nodded and deactivated, then started heading towards the gully. He glanced back over his shoulder and his skin crawled uneasily as the huge bay door on the back of the jet opened. Pausing, Martin kept watching carefully. He turned completely around and sprinted to catch up to Chris as he saw what Zach brought out of his plane.

“Chris! Be careful!” he called.

The brunette slowed and turned to look over his shoulder as Martin rushed to catch up. Zach heard the call too and suddenly the thing Martin had seen being carried out of the plane was pointed at his brother. Terror lent wings to his feet and he poured on the speed until his legs burned and his lungs ached for oxygen; he had no breath left to scream a warning to Chris.

At last Chris started to turn back towards Zach, his eyes widening as he caught sight of some sort of machine that looked like an oversized toy ray gun. It was glowing bright red and aimed dead at his chest, and he was too far into his leap to avoid whatever projectile was destined for him. He flinched preemptively and shut his eyes.

And then Martin slammed into him from the side, sending him sprawling. Chris heard a zapping noise followed by silence, and he yelled hoarsely for his brother, fear closing his throat.

“Martin! _Martin_!”

He scrambled upright again, looking frantically for his brother. His mouth went completely dry as he spotted Martin’s empty clothes and Creature Power Suit piled on the ground a few feet away. Martin _couldn’t_ be gone. Where was he? Where was his brother?

Chris whirled, eyes narrowing as he glared at Zach, who was standing frozen and looking surprised. “What did you do to my brother!?” Chris roared, flinging himself forwards and eating up the ground between him and the villain in a few massive leaps. The Zachbots nearby made an attempt to defend their startled master, but Chris made short work of them with some well-aimed and powerful kicks. “Where’s Martin?” he demanded, lunging forward and grabbing a handful of Zach’s sweater.

“I-I-I don’t know!” he yelled, struggling. “I didn’t know that would happen!”

“What do you mean?” Chris hoisted Zach bodily off the ground.

“My new invention is a de-ager!” Zach explained, almost babbling in confused fear. “It’s supposed to make me more youthful! Not make people vanish! I was going to test it on the giant rabbit thingies!”

For a few seconds Chris just stared at the villain in disbelief. “So instead you used your _untested_ invention on a human? On my _brother_?” he snapped. “No, wait, you were aiming it at me first! What is wrong with you!?”

“I didn’t know it would do that I swear!” Zach shrieked. He covered his face with his arms, obviously thinking that Chris was about to hit him. Chris wouldn’t deny that he was sorely tempted to do so, but before either of them could do or say anything else, they were interrupted by a loud noise.

A baby’s cry.

Zach and Chris stared at each other, startled, for a few seconds before they turned to goggle at the pile of Martin’s clothes, which they could now see were moving. A tiny foot kicked free of the fabric and angrily churned in the air. Chris’s jaw dropped and so did his arm, releasing Zach.

In a few swift strides, Chris was back beside Martin’s pile of clothes. Bending over, he cautiously moved the blue pullover aside, and almost passed out on the spot from shock because tangled up in the blue fabric was Martin. Except he looked like he couldn’t be any more than a year old and he was very, _very_ unhappy about laying on the ground in the Australian outback.

Shock overrode every other thought in Chris’s mind, so he snatched up Martin and hoisted him aloft for Zach—and the still present mob of cautious kangaroos—to see.

“Zach!” he screeched, “what did you do to Martin!?”

Upset with all the yelling and rough handling, Martin _shrieked_ , his face puckered and red like an overripe tomato while his tiny feet kicked furiously at the air. Zach looked completely gob smacked.

“My brother only has four teeth Zach, you have to fix this _right now_!” Chris was beginning to look a little red in the face himself, nearly out of his mind with shock and confusion and fear. He looked at Martin again and really wanted to sit down. “Oh my God my brother is a _baby_ and I don’t know how this happened _ZACH_ don’t you dare leave without fixing this!”

But Zach now recovered somewhat and he yelled back, “I don’t know what happened I didn’t mean too!” and then scrambled up the ramp of his plane, a functioning Zachbot quickly retrieving the de-ager machine and hauling it inside.

Chris made as if to follow, then realized he was still holding Martin up as if he were in the opening scene of the Lion King and his brain short-circuited as he tried to figure out what to do because Martin was currently a sobbing infant and one doesn’t just run around willy-nilly with a baby. One also doesn’t just toss them back onto the ground in favor of pursuing enemies, so instead Chris just stood there, eyes blank, as Zach’s jet took off and roared away into the distance.

Finally Chris managed to shake himself out of his stupor somewhat, half-jolted out of it by Martin’s continued wailing. “Okay, okay, okay, calm down bro, it’s okay,” Chris babbled, lowering his arms and adjusting his rough hold on Martin. That was when he realized that tiny baby Martin was naked as a jaybird. He paused, then muttered a very underwhelming, “whoops,” and bent over to pick up Martin’s pullover. Carefully he wrapped up his sobbing brother, then, at a loss for what else to do, he sat back on his tail and tried to rock Martin until he calmed down.

After a few minutes it worked, and the tiny blonde’s sobs slowed into intermittent hiccups. Cautiously Chris moved Martin away from his shoulder and peeked at his face. Though still red and streaked with drying tears, his face was no longer wrinkled up like a prune and when Chris grinned faintly in relief he actually smiled back, revealing his, yep, four teeth. Two on the top and two on the bottom, and still mostly covered by his gums.

“How old are babies when they start teething…?” Chris muttered absent-mindedly. Martin gurgled unhelpfully. Chris stared at him, still trying to process everything, and finally came to the conclusion that he had absolutely _no idea_ what to do, and the best option was to go straight home to the Tortuga.

Tucking Martin against his shoulder with one arm, he carefully leaned down to pick up the rest of Martin’s clothes and his Creature Power Suit. He put them in his pouch, gently put Martin in on top of it all, and turned back to the west, where the Tortuga was. Slowly he started home, checking nervously on his brother at every leap.

 

* * *

 

“And that’s that,” Chris concluded his explanation and then fell silent, looking anxiously at the rest of the crew. They stared back at him, wide-eyed and startled.

“ _That’s_ Martin?” Jimmy finally broke the silence, pointing in disbelief at the infant crew member.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Chris replied. He looked down at his brother, and Martin gurgled and reached up one pudgy hand towards his face. He’d done it several times while Chris was giving his explanation, but this time Chris gave Martin a finger to grab. Happily he latched on, but when he started pulling Chris gloved finger towards his mouth, Chris snatched it back. “No, Martin, that’s not a good idea,” he said, “you’ll get a million diseases.” Suddenly he looked back at the crew. “Wait don’t babies need immune shots or something?” he demanded, looking a bit panicked.

Koki blinked and then picked up her tablet, but she didn’t look at it as she replied, “Well yes, but I think Zach’s ray probably didn’t completely reverse his age. All his vaccinations are probably still effective.”

“Okay,” Jimmy interjected, “the real question is: is Martin still as intelligent? Like, does he have all the normal Martin memories?”

Everyone stared at him for a long second, then Chris looked back down at Martin with a frown. “That’s…actually a great question…. I mean, he obviously has the mindset of a baby right now. And he also knows who I am…but I don’t know about everything else.”

“Here’s another question,” Aviva spoke up, “How old is he supposed to be? Obviously he’s a baby, but there’s a lot of growth that happens in just one year and it’ll really affect how we have to handle him.”

Chris nodded. “Well, he has four teeth, and all his hair…. I’m going to be completely honest here,” he confessed weakly, “I don’t actually know a whole lot about human babies. I know basic stuff but not much else.”

Koki moved closer to him and held out her arms for Martin. “Here, let me see. I have some really little nieces and nephews, I’ll know.” Chris handed over Martin, who didn’t complain at all. He made some happy little noises and when Koki held him up near her face he immediately grabbed her nose and grinned widely, showing his tiny teeth. She smiled back, her expression melting. “Okay, so he’s teething, that could put him anywhere between four to six months.”

“What does that tell us?” Chris asked.

“Well, he can probably sit up by himself, roll himself over, and can start eating pureed food.”

With a huge sigh of relief, Chris grinned. “Okay, now we know where we’re at.” He glanced at Aviva, “the next step is how to reverse this.”

Aviva nodded. “I’d like to get my hands on Zach’s technology, that way I could reverse engineer it. But in the meanwhile we can run a check on Martin and see if there’s some sign of how this is working.”

“Okay, well that sounds like a plan.” Chris grinned again, most of his anxiety smoothed away by having a plan of action.

“Right,” Koki said firmly, “Jimmy, get ready to fly us out of here.” She handed Martin back over to Chris, but not before giving him a gooey sort of smile, the kind adults get when they’re completely enamored with a baby and don’t quite realize it. Then she was back business, completely missing the smirk Chris was aiming at her. “I’ll get to work on tracking Zach.”

Aviva waved Chris over as she headed to her work station. “Come over here so we can run a scan on him. Let’s see if there’s anything we can find out.”

“Okay.” Chris hurried after her, and he glanced down at his now infant brother.

Martin gave a wide baby grin back at him, and Chris wasn’t too emotionally dense to deny that his baby brother was _seriously_ tugging on his heartstrings right now. As if to drive the point home, Martin reached up with a tiny, pudgy little hand and grabbed Chris’s chin.

“Oh my gosh, Martin,” he whispered, “You know little hands are my weakness, stop that.”

Martin just babbled enthusiastically.

Rolling his eyes, Chris stopped beside Aviva’s workstation. “We’ll get you back to normal soon, Martin, don’t worry about a thing.”

And as though he took those words to heart, Martin began to suck on his own hand and looked completely at ease. Aviva couldn’t stop the little coo that fluttered out of her mouth and Chris fought to hide his own mushy look.

Oh well, while they tried to fix things at least Martin could amuse and charm them. Chris smiled. Everything would turn out just fine.


End file.
